Lawmakers Move to Repeal Health-Rationing Measure

 
 
 

March 7, 2012
Lawmakers Move to Repeal Health-Rationing Measure

by Karla Dial

A bill to repeal a little-known provision of the new federal health care law known as ObamaCare is working its way toward a floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, by voice vote passed the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act (H.R. 452), which would eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a group of up to 18 unelected bureaucrats that the law empowers to make health care decisions for millions of Americans. The House Ways and Means Committee will conduct a markup of the bill on Thursday.

Under ObamaCare, IPAB is tasked with keeping Medicare health care costs down. However, critics, including the National Right to Life Committee, are concerned that the way the law is written means it gives the board even broader powers, including limiting the amount of money consumers can spend on their own health care. If a procedure costs more than the allowable limit, IPAB may have the power to deny it — even if individuals are able and willing to pay for it from their own pockets. And doctors who defy IPAB to treat their patients could be penalized.
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Quoteworthy
“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President by your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many … Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a Government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a Higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.”
— Gerald Rudolph Ford, address upon assuming the presidency after President Nixon’s resignation, Aug. 9, 1974
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